Chapter 33: Street Vendors Xiao Cai and Xiao Mai

Lu Lin and the Chen Brothers arrived at the fair early to snatch a good stall.

The vendors usually needed to pay for a stall, but this Winter Fair was an exception, 'first come, first served'.

The streets were beginning to hum with life as Lu Lin and the Chens organized the stall, other vendors had arrived one after another, there were lamp vendors, snack vendors, kitchenware vendors, fabric vendors... ... everything that one could wish for.

Lu Lin set up three sections of gloves on the stall, the section on the left was three hundred cents, on the right was five hundred, in the middle was two taels.

"What? Two taels?" Chen Xiao Cai asked in surprise.

Lu Lin nodded.

Chen Xiao Cai's eyes were wide open as he saw Lu Lin nodding, "You can buy five hundred kilos of sweet potatoes with two taels of silver, I think three hundred is pricy enough, let alone two taels!"

"This is made of fox skin, do you know how rare it is?" Lu Lin explained patiently.

Fox-fur robes were popular among the prominent officials and eminent personages in town, it was a shame that the fox that Chen Xiao Mi had captured was injured in the trap, the skin was not in best condition. Therefore, Lu Lin had to compromise and he asked Granny Shen to make a few gloves with it.

"Cai, Mai, we are counting on you kids to attract customers. Hawk our gloves! I will buy you honey cakes if you kids do a good job." Coaxed Lu Lin.

Lu Lin was a bit shy when he saw so many people walking past, so he figured he better bride the kids and let them do the hawking.

Chen Xiao Cai saw Lu Lin right through, he despised Lu Lin's behavior, and he thought Lu Lin a bit calculating.

But Chen Xiao Mai smacked his lips and asked in excitement, "Honey cakes, really?"

Lu Lin nodded and replied in earnest, "Yes, honey cakes, as many as you want."

Chen Xiao Mai bit his finger and thought for a little while, then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Gloves, check out these amazing fur gloves!"

Chen Xiao Cai pressed his forehead on seeing Chen Xiao Mai exerting himself to the utmost.

'My baby brother is so gullible! I can't believe he is hawking in front of so many people, just for a piece of honey cake!'

Chen Xiao Mai kept gazing at Chen Xiao Cai, asking for help. Chen Xiao Cai shook his head and joined his little brother to boost his morale.

Chen Xiao Mai wore a new winter jacket with a hood that ha got tiger embroidery on it, his cheeks looked rosy thanks to Lu Lin's attentive care, and his voice was in such a pleasant high-pitch. Soon a lot of customers had gathered around their stall. However, most customers would turn away immediately because the price was too high.

Seeing that, Chen Xiao Cai got a bit anxious, he looked at Lu Lin and suggested dropping the price.

Lu Lin shook his head and said, "Nah, I reckon this is a perfect pricing."

'People will start to copy our styles, gloves will be all over the market within days! No way can we sell them for a good price by then. We need to have faith, Law of Value, kiddo, our target groups are young masters in wealthy families.' Thought Lu Lin.

Chen Xiao Cai looked at Chen Xiao Mi for help, but Chen Xiao Mi said without hesitation, "Listen to Lu Lin."

Chen Xiao Cai lowered his head, he was surprised to hear that, it looked like his big brother listened to Lu Lin more and more. He knew Bios were supposed to listen to the husbands, but he always thought his big brother was different.

Chen Xiao Mi had no idea what was in Chen Xiao Cai's mind, from his perspective, it was very simple. He thought Lu Lin was more educated and more well-travelled than him, plus making gloves was Lu Lin's idea in the first place, it only made sense to listen to Lu Lin.

The worst case scenario was not able to sell anything, but it was just some fur and hide that had gone wasted.

Lu Lin saw a young master dressed in an embroidered fox-skin robe with a page following him walking past the stall, he promptly winked at Chen Xiao Mai.

Chen Xiao Mai and Lu Lin had rehearsed at home already, Chen Xiao Mai got the cue. He just raised his hands to demonstrate the gloves in his hands and he raised his volume, "Hello, young master, have a look at our amazing gloves."

The young master who was gazing around was attracted by Chen Xiao Mai, he turned around and checked the stall, "What do you have here?"

Lu Lin handed the young master a pair of fox fur gloves and quickly demonstrated them, "They are called gloves, try them out, they will keep your hands warm on the cold night in the study, you can cover the hood when you are not using your hands, and just like that, you can uncover the hood when you are studying and writing."

The young master was intrigued immediately, "So brilliant, how much are they?"

Lu Lin smiled and said, "Two taels of silver."

The page frowned and said, "Two taels of silver? What a rip-off!"

Then the page looked Lu Lin up and down, 'I know what you are thinking, you just bank on our young master is ignorant of worldly affairs and he will pay you this ridiculous amount of money!'

Lu Lin wasn't surprised when he heard that from the page. 'What a good boy, trying to protect his young master.'

Lu Lin smiled and started to explain with poise, "These gloves in the middle are made of the best fox fur you can find on the market, there are only several pairs in total. If you find them too pricy, the ones on the right are made of rabbit fur, and they are three hundred cents. It's a simple design but they will keep you warm as well. I only suggested the fox fur ones because I thought they suited you more, young master."

The young master's name is Liu Yi, Liu Yi was pleased with Lu Lin's reply, "You are a good businessman, they do look good and I will take them. I want two pairs of fox -furred ones and five pairs of rabbit fur ones."

Liu Yi had it all figured out, he would use the fox fur ones himself, and he could send the rabbit fur ones to his family and friends as gifts.

Lu Lin smiled and said, "Great, five taels and five hundred cents in total, just give me five taels considering you are our first customer."

Liu Yi accepted the offer with alacrity. With that he handed Lu Lin the money, and Lu Lin put the money into Chen Xiao Mi's pocket immediately.

Chen Xiao Mi put the money in the pocket with astonishment, he couldn't believe Lu Lin had already had his first deal, he had sold seven pairs of gloves within a short while.

Gloves were a novelty in that time and space, their stall had attracted so many people, but most of them were just having a look, hoping they could make gloves by themselves.

They had several customers after Liu Yi, but they only bought the rabbit fur ones. They didn't sell any fox fur ones until an hour later or so, a plump woman bought two pairs from them happily.

Chen Xiao Mi was more than happy with the deals they had made, it went so much better than he had expected. 'Those wealthy people, they are willing to spend as many as two taels of silvers on such a small item!'

A group of well-dressed young masters came to their stall not long after the plump woman had left.

"Do you still have fox fur gloves?"

Lu Lin smiled at them and said, "There are only four pairs left."

Lu Lin squinted his eyes and thought this group of people must have seen Liu Yi showing off his gloves.

"I want them all."

"That's not fair, we are here together, you have no right to take them all!" a young master glared at his friend who wanted to hog all four pairs.

Rich young masters were motivated by vanity, they liked to flaunt their family wealth among the peers. Two taels of silvers for a pair of gloves was pricy for ordinary people, but it was nothing for those rich kids who were willing to spend the amount of money that could support a village family for an entire year on a meal.

"You know what, sell them to me, I will pay you three taels for each pair!"

"You jerk, that's out of line!"

The group vied with one another to get the gloves. Lu Lin and the Chen Brothers got to call it a day earlier thanks to the rich young masters.

Lu Lin had noticed several people looked at them funny when the group of young masters surrounded their stall. But Lu Lin didn't pay them much attention.

They got 14 taels of silver from the rabbit fur gloves, 40 tales from the fox fur and wool ones. They had made 54 taels of silver within a couple hours.

Color flared in Chen Xiao Mi's cheeks after he counted the money.

"We had a good day, shall we shop around?" suggested Lu Lin.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded. He cast a glimpse at Lu Lin and said in excitement, "I wish we had made more gloves, I can't believe we've made so much money! I've sold so many animal skins for a cheap price, imagine I saved all of them and made gloves out of them!"

Lu Lin replied, "Soon people will start to copy this idea, don't blame yourself for not keeping the hide. Plus we need to thank Granny Shen, she's got great needlework."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Yeah, those gloves are very well made."

Chen Xiao Mi bought the kids several pieces of honey cakes, Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai ate the hot and soft cakes with relish.

Chen Xiao Mi bought two new quilts on Lu Lin's request even though he was completely fine using the old ones, this winter was already much better than the previous years. But Lu Lin saw it differently, he thought they might as well improve their life quality now that they were able to live a comfortable life.

Chen Xiao Mi didn't reject Lu Lin's suggestion even though he thought Lu Lin was just making a fuss.

Chen Xiao Mi gave Lu Lin some allowance from the fortune they hade made from selling gloves, but Lu Lin spent most of them on buying stuff for Chen Xiao Mai. Chen Xiao Mai got so excited on the market, he would point at everything and stare at Lu Lin with those puppy eyes. Lu Lin ended up buying all of them for Chen Xiao Mai.

"Xiao Mi, here you are!" Yang Heng Zhi suddenly appeared and exclaimed.

"Young Master Yang, what are the odds!"

Yang Heng Zhi looked mad, he glared at the young couple and said, "I'm here looking for you! I heard you guys were selling gloves, how could you sell such great stuff to those jerks without taste?"

'Those young masters must have bragged to him, and now he wants some gloves, but we don't have any left, what should I do?' Chen Xiao Mi frowned.

"Young Master Yang, I've kept some for ourselves, but please have a look if you are interested, the only thing is your option will be limited." Lu Lin replied.

Chen Xiao Mi looked at Lu Lin in surprise, so did Yang Heng Zhi.

"Really?"

Lu Lin nodded and produced three pairs from the carriage, he handed three pairs to Yang Heng Zhi, two pairs of rabbit fur and one fox fur.

Yang Heng Zhi was wild with joy when he saw the fox fur ones that his classmates failed to buy.

"Fancy! There's one pair of fox fur!" Yang Heng Zhi was surprised.

"I saved a them just for you when I didn't see you on the market." Lu Lin said in a clever way.

"Thank you so much for the thought, Lu Lin. I will take all three pairs, keep the change." Yang Heng Zhi gave Lu Lin five taels of silver and left.

Chen Xiao Mi asked Lu Lin when Yang Heng Zhi had left, "Why did you save three pairs?"

Lu Lin smiled, "I saved those for us, but I don't mind earning a few more taels now that Young Master Yang likes them so much."

Chen Xiao Mi secretly thought, 'Keeping a pair of fox fur gloves to ourselves? That's so luxurious, the rabbit fur ones will do the job.'

Lu Lin and the Chen Brothers had an awesome time on the market, they went back home after they were stuffed to the max.